U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,759,366 and 6,784,906 disclose technology enabling two sided thermal printing. Systems for printing a medicine label and related advisory information are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,849 entitled “Method and system for printing a combination pharmaceutical label and directed newsletter”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,240,394 entitled “Method and apparatus for automatically generating advisory information for pharmacy patients”; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,067,524 entitled “Method and system for automatically generating advisory information for pharmacy patients along with normally transmitted data” all of which name Baxter Byerly as an inventor, and the teachings of all of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Catalina currently prints its “PatientLink” information in pharmacies. PatientLink contains information in a newsletter form including about 25% of the time sponsored information. Either Catalina or a sponsor generates the content.
Pharmacies print prescription labels. Pharmacies may also distribute additional information to prescription recipients, such as MedGuide and/or monograph. Under current practice, all MedGuide information is preprinted and shipped to each pharmacy, and the pharmacist or clerk is responsible for selecting the correct MedGuide and conveying that document with each prescription for the corresponding drug.
Many pharmacies generate their prescriptions by printing the prescription label, placing the label on a bottle, locating in their store the specified drug, placing the specified quantity of drug in the bottle, and then placing the bottle in a small bag. Then, they either staple MedGuide or related information to the bag, place that information inside the bag, or locate the preprinted MedGuide information when the prescription recipient requests possession of the prescription.